Report: Key Mortgage Tax Break Just Helps the Wealthy

(Newser) – The tax code is rife with home ownership incentives that are both popular with voters and staunchly defended by lawmakers. But it turns out the breaks mostly just help rich people buy pricier houses, according to a new report from the right-leaning R Street Institute. They “don’t encourage homeownership in any meaningful way,” the study’s author tells the Wall Street Journal. “People just end up buying larger homes.” He estimates that in Washington, DC, the subsides have increased the average home size by 1,400 square feet.

What’s more, the tax breaks are mainly going to the wealthy; homeowners with incomes above $ 100,000 are four times as likely to claim the benefit as those earning less, because low earners rarely itemize their deductions. It’s the kind of report that can anger the right and the left alike. Matt Welch at Reason calls the tax breaks an “upper class entitlement,” while Hamilton Nolan at Gawker calls it a “grotesque policy outcome.” Barack Obama has repeatedly called for making the benefit available only to those making less than $ 200,000 a year.

Politics from Newser

Report: Key Mortgage Tax Break Just Helps the Wealthy

Apparently Now a Tax Expert, ESPN"s Kenny Mayne Helps Mustache-Clad Hipsters with IRS Challenges

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Apparently Now a Tax Expert, ESPN"s Kenny Mayne Helps Mustache-Clad Hipsters with IRS Challenges

Alabama RFID Cards: How Biometrics Helps DHS Fight Terrorism

Susanne Posel

,Chief Editor Occupy Corporatism | The US Independent
February 18, 2014

The Alabama Department of Public Safety (ADPS) are issuing new chipped driver’s licenses and IDs under the STAR ID initiative that promises to “improve the integrity and security of state-issued driver licenses and identification cards, which, in turn, will help fight terrorism and reduce fraud.”

STAR ID is the Alabama legislature’s response to the REAL-ID Act of 2005 (RIDA) which keeps the state in compliance with federal mandates while maintaining ‘security [and] authentication” of Alabama residents.

By December of 2017, Alabama states that all residents must have their STAR ID; having replaced their current ID and driver’s license.

RIDA is tasked with protecting Americans from terrorism by empowering the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other federal agencies to monitor and profile residents to ensure their authenticity.

Over four distinct phases, the DHS is enforcing state mandatory deadlines for compliance and a courtesy 3 month “warning” period.

The phases of compliance are:
1. Restricted areas for DHS headquarters
2. All federal facilities and nuclear power plants
3. Semi-restricted areas at federal facilities
4. Entry into commercial aircraft

States that have complied with RFID chipped ID cards for residents include:
• Alabama
• California
• District of Columbia
• Florida
• Hawaii
• Illinois
• Kansas
• Maryland
• Nevada
• New Mexico
• North Carolina
• Oregon
• Rhode Island
• Texas
• Virginia
• Wisconsin
In 2003 the Department of Defense was receiving software for the Joint Protective Enterprise Network (JPEN) under directives from Oracle’s Homeland Security Program Office.

Oracle was paid $ 15 million to supply this system to military bases across the nation. JPEN would facilitate the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Transportation Security Agency (TSA) and the DHS; as well as connecting hospitals, air traffic control centers, nuclear power plant operators and police and fire departments.

Six years later, the DHS renegotiated contracts with Oracle. Under consolidation, DHS took 487,000 licenses, software and maintenance agreements from Microsoft; as well “unlimited” licenses between Oracle and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The DoDare using biometrics to fight terrorism, catalogue active duty troops and maintain national security interests. The Biometrics Identity Management Agency (BIMA) utilizes biometrics to “identify the enemy” and verify individuals to ensure secure business and governmental functions.

The US Department of State Consular Consolidated Database (CCD) has more than 90 million people’s photographs data based with the continuous use of the Department of Facial Recognition Software.
The DHS Automated Biometric Identification System tracks an estimated 250,000 biometric communications a day. Over 126 million fingerprints, photographs and biographical information are filed for the US government to use at their discretion.

The National ID card by Oracle would establish “a standard and secure national identifier, we could ensure that any system that chose to use it could effectively share information with other systems that use it.”

Larry Ellison, founder of the Oracle Corporation, showed off a prototype of a National ID card at the National Press club in 2001 that included a picture, fingerprint and other digital controls to ensure security. He believed that the US government “could phase in digital ID cards to replace existing Social Security cards and driver’s licenses. These new IDs should be based on a uniform standard such as credit card technology, which is harder to counterfeit than existing government IDs.”

Susanne Posel | Original Author | Original Copyright Holder

http://OccupyCorporatism.com

[email protected]

Seattle, Washington, United States, -08:00

Susanne Posel

Alabama RFID Cards: How Biometrics Helps DHS Fight Terrorism

Couple Helps Wounded Veterans, Now Owes $10,000 In Taxes

A Virginia couple that gave land and $ 1 million to a veterans group is hit with a $ 10,000 tax bill. FOX News reports.

RealClearPolitics Video Log

Couple Helps Wounded Veterans, Now Owes $10,000 In Taxes

First Lady Michelle Obama Helps NORAD Track Santa

Anxiously wondering when Santa and his sleigh full of toys might arrive in their neighborhood, children from around the country phoned NORAD today for Christmas Eve updates on his whereabouts. 

A few kids got a special holiday treat on the other end of the line: First Lady Michelle Obama, who was helping out with  NORAD’s annual Santa tracking program.

First Lady Michelle Obama reacts while talking on the phone to children across the country as part of the annual NORAD Tracks Santa program. Mrs. Obama answered the phone calls from Kailua, Hawaii, Christmas Eve, Dec. 24, 2013. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)

To join in the fun, follow Santa at www.noradsanta.org or by calling 1-877-Hi-NORAD (1-877-446-6723). NORAD’s “Santa Cams” will also stream videos as Santa makes his way over various locations around the world. You can follow NORAD Tracks Santa on Facebook and Twitter. 

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West Wing Week 12/24/13 or, “West Wing Week: The Holiday Card”

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First Lady Michelle Obama Helps NORAD Track Santa

12 Years After 9/11, Obama Helps ‘Revive’ Al-Qaeda in Syria

Report warns ‘Syrian rebels’ could launch chemical attacks against the west

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
September 11, 2013

Image: Wikimedia Commons

12 years after 9/11, a Bipartisan Policy Center report warns that Al-Qaeda’s presence in Syria is enabling the terror group to undergo a process of “revival and resuscitation” which could lead to chemical weapons attacks against the west.

The report is produced by the Bipartisan Policy Center’s Homeland Security Project and is entitled Jihadist Terrorism: A Threat Assessment.

Despite one of the report’s authors Peter Bergen telling a press conference that “Al Qaeda central is basically on life support,” the report notes that the civil war in Syria is providing the terror organization with a new “foothold” and a “chance to regroup, train, and plan operations,” enabling their “revival and resuscitation.”

The Obama administration’s insistence that the United States intervene militarily on the side of Syrian rebels, who are being led by Al-Qaeda affiliate Jabhat al-Nusra, which the report states is the “most effective fighting force in Syria,” has led to charges by the likes of Senator Ted Cruz that the White House is acting as “Al-Qaeda’s Air Force.”

The BPC report also warns that chemical weapons falling into the hands of jihadists in Syria could subsequently be used against the west.

“Potential jihadi access to the vast stockpile of chemical weapons assembled by the Assad regime and scattered across Syria is a potential game-changer though—not only because they could be used there, but because they could be smuggled out of the country as well,” states the report.

The report highlights how Jabhat al-Nusra is under the control of Al-Qaeda leader Ayman Al-Zawahiri, who “personally intervened to settle a dispute between Jabhat al-Nusra and al-Qaeda in Iraq….and declared the Syrian group to be under his direction.”

The group’s presence in Syria could create a “long-term safe haven” located “in the heart of the Arab world and next door to Israel,” leading to, “an organization with the intention and capability to attack the West. It could also be the success al-Qaeda needs to revive itself,” states the report, adding that a foothold in Syria could serve as “a launching pad for attacks against” Europe and Israel.

The White House’s sustained financial and potential military support for rebels who are fighting alongside Al-Qaeda militants who have been responsible for a plethora of atrocities in Syria is one of the primary reasons why the majority of the American people, along with most members of Congress, do not support the Obama administration’s plan for military intervention.

These same militants, have repeatedly voiced their hatred for and intention to destroy America, as they ransack Christian churches, burn US flags, chant anti-American slogans and sing the praises of Osama Bin Laden while glorifying the 9/11 attacks.

As the New York Times reported, these very same terrorists killed U.S. troops in Iraq and yet western backing for the insurgency against Bashar Al-Assad has greased the skids for violent extremists to potentially seize power in Syria.

It is disturbingly ironic that on the 12th anniversary of 9/11, the White House is now on the same side as the terrorist organization charged with carrying out the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon which killed nearly 3,000 Americans.

Watch a video below in which Syrian rebels praise Osama Bin Laden while glorifying the 9/11 attacks.

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*********************

Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.

This article was posted: Wednesday, September 11, 2013 at 6:14 am

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Prison Planet.com

12 Years After 9/11, Obama Helps ‘Revive’ Al-Qaeda in Syria

Talk therapy helps Congolese victims of sexual violence recover

Group sessions work better than individual counseling

By Nathan Seppa

Web edition: June 6, 2013

African women living in a war zone who have post-traumatic stress disorder from enduring or witnessing sexual violence are more apt to overcome it with group therapy than with private counseling, researchers report in the June 6 New England Journal of Medicine.

The approach, called cognitive processing therapy, encourages people with PTSD to reassess how they think about an event. Victims of sexual violence often place blame on themselves. “They might think, ‘It was my fault,’ or ‘I should have prevented this,’” says Boston University psychologist Patricia Resick.

Cognitive processing therapy provides step-by-step mental techniques to identify such maladaptive thoughts or beliefs, says study coauthor Judith Bass, a psychiatric epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Then, she says, the women “can move forward.”

To test the strategy in groups against individual support therapy by lay counselors, researchers enlisted 405 women in 15 villages in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, a rural area that has been beset by warfare for nearly two decades. Armed militias and government soldiers continue to roam the region, often attacking civilians. Nearly all the women in the study had been raped.

Psychological assessments of the women showed that most of them had PTSD along with depression or anxiety. Many were also functionally impaired — unable to perform routine tasks. The researchers assigned 248 women in eight villages to get individual support counseling as needed, a standard crisis response; 157 women in the other seven villages were put in groups of six to eight and got up to 12 sessions of cognitive processing therapy.

After four months, the proportion of women with probable PTSD dropped from 60 percent to 8 percent in the cognitive processing therapy group; the proportion of those with depression or anxiety plummeted from 71 to 10 percent. Their functional impairment scores dropped by half. In the women who received individual support counseling, rates of probable PTSD, depression or anxiety declined less, from 83 percent to about 54 percent.

Resick, who devised the 12-session cognitive processing strategy, has used it to treat PTSD in rape victims, battered women and combat veterans. She says testing the therapy in war-torn Congo is a real accomplishment, in part since many of the women were illiterate. The therapeutic strategy normally involves giving clients notebooks to record and recognize problem thoughts and to write down coping techniques. “I was very impressed, actually amazed,” she says, “that they were able to pull off a randomized, controlled trial under those kinds of circumstances.”

The approach should translate to other war-weary areas, Bass says. “We’ve shown we can do it in low-literacy, conflict areas. These are the hardest parts of the world.”

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Suggested Reading

A. Arieff. Sexual violence in African conflicts: CRS report for Congress prepared for members and committees of Congress. Nov. 30, 2010. [Go to]

Sexual violence in conflict: Report of the Secretary-General. United Nations, March 14, 2013. [Go to]

C. Watts, M. Hossain and C. Zimmerman. War and sexual violence – mental health care for survivors. New England Journal of Medicine. Volume 368, June 6, 2013, p. 2152. doi: 10.1056/NEJMp1304712. [Go to]

K. Johnson et al. Association of sexual violence and human right violations with physical and mental health in territories of the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo. JAMA, Volume 304, Aug. 4, 2012, p. 553. [Go to]

Science News

Talk therapy helps Congolese victims of sexual violence recover

U.S. Helps Allies Trying to Battle Iranian Hackers

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration has begun helping Middle Eastern allies build up their defenses against Iran’s growing arsenal of cyberweapons, and will be doing the same in Asia to contain computer-network attacks from North Korea, according to senior American officials.

The American officials would not say which countries in the Persian Gulf have signed up for help in countering Iran’s computer abilities. But the list, some officials say, includes the nations that have been the most active in tracking Iranian arms shipments, intercepting them in ports and providing intelligence to the United States about Iranian actions. The three most active in that arena are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain.

In Asia, the countries most worried about being struck by North Korean computer attacks are South Korea and Japan.

The Defense Department’s assertive new effort in the gulf and Asia is the latest example of how the Obama administration is increasingly tailoring its national security efforts for a new era of digital conflict, in this case assuring the defense of computer networks and, if necessary, striking back against assaults.

A directive signed by the president that surfaced Friday — the third in a series of leaked documents published by the newspapers The Guardian and The Washington Post — underscored how the Obama administration is trying to prepare itself and its allies. The leaks also revealed how the Obama administration has put in place a large Internet surveillance operation to identify terrorism threats.

The presidential directive included the declaration that the United States reserved the right to take “anticipatory action” against “imminent threats,” a reference, it seemed, to the kind of crippling infrastructure attacks that Iran appears to be working on against American and allied targets. The new help for strengthening computer-network defenses for allies, which has not been publicly announced, closely parallels earlier efforts by the Obama administration in two volatile parts of the world. In recent years it has helped install advanced missile-defense systems and early-warning radars in Persian Gulf nations to counter Iran’s missile ability, and it has done something similar in Asia in response to North Korea’s nuclear weapons program.

But deterring cyberattacks is a far more complex problem, and American officials concede that this effort, which will include providing computer hardware and software and training to allies, is an experiment. It has been propelled by two high-profile attacks in the past year. One was against Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s largest, state-run oil producer, and according to American officials it was carried out by Iran. That attack crippled 30,000 computers but did not succeed in halting oil production. The other, an attack on South Korea’s banking and media companies this spring, was later attributed to North Korea. It froze the ability of several banks to operate for days.

“The Iranian attack on the Saudis was a real wake-up call in the region,” said one senior administration official, who would not speak on the record about the American efforts to counter Iran. “It made everyone realize that while the Iranians might think twice about launching a missile attack in the region, they see cyber as a potent way to lash out in response to sanctions.”

The administration is capitalizing on the fear created by those attacks to build on the de facto alliance against Iran that it has constructed in the region. The Pentagon is drawing up proposals for providing advanced hardware and software for computer-network defense that could be sold throughout the Persian Gulf, much as American aircraft and missiles are sold to Arab allies. Training programs are being put together to teach computer security to military and law enforcement in the region, and to collaborate with private companies.

And, just as the Pentagon conducts naval exercises in the Persian Gulf to practice ways of keeping the Strait of Hormuz open, officials say future joint war games would include simulated cyberattacks, similar to the one Iran conducted against Saudi Aramco.

The idea is to give American and allied forces practice carrying out their missions with their networks under duress, officials said.

The new interagency effort in Washington comes at a time when Israeli and American intelligence officials have been concerned by Iran’s swift advances in its computer weaponry, particularly its ability to disrupt existing infrastructure. As one former senior American military commander said recently, “They have startled everyone with the speed at which their capabilities have increased.”

But one continuing point of dispute is whether Iran and North Korea are working together on the development of cyberweapons, the way they have worked together for years on the development of missile technology.

A senior Israeli military official said Israel had evidence that Iran and North Korea were beginning to collaborate on developing cyberweapons. He declined to cite the specific evidence.

Although there is concern in Washington that cooperation between Iran and North Korea could spread to computer tools, American officials say there is no proof of such collaboration.

NYT > Global Home

U.S. Helps Allies Trying to Battle Iranian Hackers

Israel helps dying Syrian girl

Courtesy Save a Child’s Heart

A Syrian woman sits at the bedside of her four-year-old daughter in the children’s ward at the Wolfson hospital, south of Tel Aviv. The girl was brought to Israel for life-saving treatment with help from the non-profit group Save a Child’s Heart.

By Paul Goldman, Producer, NBC News

The young girl was dying when she arrived in the land of her country’s enemy.

A heart condition had left the 4-year-old Syrian struggling to walk or even talk.

But in Israel – a country still in a state of cease-fire with Syria after the Yom Kippur War four decades ago — she found her saviors.

Admitted earlier this month to the Wolfson Medical Center, south of Tel Aviv, she underwent life-saving surgery.

The girl is now recuperating on a ward along with children from the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Sudan, Romania, China and Israel.

“She would have definitely died if she wouldn’t have arrived here,” Ilan Cohen, one of the doctors who treated her, said.

“A lot of patients arrive here from enemy countries and view Israelis as demons. They are surprised that we are human without horns on our heads,” he added. “This is the first time they see Israelis without a uniform and I think it’s a good surprise.”

Her treatment was the work of “Save a Child’s Heart,” an Israeli nonprofit organization started by the late Ami Cohen, who moved to Israel from the United States in 1992.

He joined the staff of the Wolfson with a vision to mending children’s hearts from around the world. The organization he began has since helped treat 3,200 children from 45 countries.

Save a Child’s Heart also trains doctors from around the world so they can go back and treat patients locally.

“We have limited capacity and we can’t treat the millions who need our help,” Ilan Cohen said. “This is our most important task.”

Jim Hollander / EPA, file

Intensive care unit doctors Rahel Sion Sarid, right, and Eldar Schneider, wheel a Save a Child’s Heart patient from surgery at the Wolfson Hospital, south of Tel Aviv, Israel.

Refugees in their own country – wracked by a brutal civil war between President Bashar Assad’s regime and opposition rebels for more than two years – the mother’s and daughter’s journey to safety was a long and dangerous one.

They made their way to Israel through a third country, the name of which has not been made known for security reasons.

The child and her mother are also not being named because of a potentially hostile reaction should they eventually return home.

“It’s just too dangerous,” said Fatma Sarsour, Arabic translator for Save a Child’s Heart.

“At some point, both daughter and mother will go back to Syria and they want to keep this trip a secret,” she said.

As recently as Tuesday, Syrian and Israeli troops exchanged fire on the cease-fire line on the Golan Heights. Israel has also sent its warplanes to bomb targets in Syria to prevent weapons getting through to Assad-allied Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.

Sansour said that when the girl arrived in Israel she was clearly “very sick.”

“It was hard for her walk or talk,” she said.

She was found to have only one functional ventricle – a type of chamber — in her heart instead of the normal two.

In mid-May, she underwent a three-hour operation and she is now back on her feet and walking the hospital halls.

Her middle-aged mother appeared uncomfortable with media attention because of the perils of being identified and declined to comment.

But the girl is back to being a cute 4-year-old with a shy smile, despite the stitches on her chest.

She has been making friends with other children of various nationalities on the ward.

Alona Raucher-Shternfeld, a pediatric cardiologist with Save a Child’s Heart who also helped treat the child, hopes this example of harmony between different nationalities and creeds can help inspire the wider world to better relations.

“We all hope that the co-existence that we created here in the clinic is a sign to what really can be achieved in the future.”

Related:

• Israel and Syria clash on Golan Heights cease-fire line


• Israel strikes Syrian military research center, US official says


• On the Brink: Syria chaos looms large over Obama’s Israel trip

Israel helps dying Syrian girl